After a multi-year hiatus from street photography...
It's been wonderful hitting the streets of San Francisco and practicing street photography again. My first attempts were clunky and a bit cumbersome, but I could quickly feel the familiarity of the art returning. I haven't quite returned to my old form, but the feeling and comfort is slowly coming back. One of the most interesting aspects of getting back into street photography is remarking just how much different it is from travel photography.
Re-emphasizing the difference between street and travel photography...
As I mentioned in my first post about street photography in San Francisco, it is remarkable how different street photography and travel photography are. Without having practiced both, it's easy to imagine that travel photography is just street photography in an exotic location. But in reality, with travel photography, one of the primary artistic constraints is maintaining a sense of place in your photographs. For travel photography to be successful, the photographs must be imbued with a strong sense of place, or they fall flat of their artistic intention. It's been very liberating, departing from that enormous constraint, and it's made me think a lot about how I want to proceed in my photography and travels. I certainly feel less constrained to follow my travel photography theme as strictly as I had in the past. It's made me realize that I want to branch out into other areas of photography, in addition to travel.
Pier 39 / Fisherman's Wharf. A prototypical example of travel photography, notice how strong the sense of place is here. Capturing that sense of place is the goal of travel photography.
San FRANCISCO is also the perfect city for street photography...
I think one of the factors that made it such a delight to practice street photography in San Francisco is the fact that the city itself is so dynamic, vibrant, and exciting. And, to top it off, it is such an explorable and walkable city. Everything is dynamic there; the people, the weather, the social scene. There's always events and parades and celebrations. The two months I was there were absolutely packed with events and things to photograph. There's no shortage of interesting characters and dramatic tableaus of human interaction. Around every corner, there is drama, action, and unpredictability.
Title: The Burden of Vigilance. Aside from the palm tree frame left, there is almost no indication of where this photograph was taken. This is an example of street photography.
This experience has fundamentally changed how I will practice travel photography going forward...
Practicing street photography again in San Francisco has made me realize that I want to focus more on that in my travels. I want to concern myself less with capturing the sense of place and instead focus more on the humanity and the decisive moment in front of me. There's simply too much out there to photograph, and I'd like to find a way to capture the human element more. What is a place, really, but a collection of people? Do we really travel to see aesthetically pleasing places? I don't. I travel to meet people and experience new cultures. I don't care about the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't wonder about the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't care about Fisherman's Wharf (though, I do like the photograph of it that I captured). I don't wonder about Fisherman's Wharf.
I do, however, care about my fellow human. I do wonder what drives them. I wonder what they're thinking, how they're feeling, and what their struggles and beliefs are. From this moment forward, I hope to bring that care and wonder forward into my photography in a very intentional and thoughtful way. It won't be an overnight change, but I hope over time it informs, tremendously, how I practice my art. It's about the people...
Gallery
